


After a Breath

by Impala_Dreamer



Series: The Chosen [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Funeral, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 23:51:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17213168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impala_Dreamer/pseuds/Impala_Dreamer
Summary: ~Sam, Y/N, and Castiel are left to clean up after Michael vanishes.~





	After a Breath

They were gone in a blink.

Sam was still reeling from the fight, from the shock of it all. His chest heaved with deep breaths that did little to calm his racing heart, and his own cry still rang in his ears.

“Beka!”

She was gone, pulled into thin air as he looked on, helpless. Michael was too fast, too absolute in his movements. Sam didn’t stand a chance against him, and now he stood in blood. It flowed towards him slowly, spreading out over the hardwood floor, devouring and staining each antique grain. Sam watched it inch towards his boots, thick and dark cherry red.

After a breath, he broke free of the panic and raced to Y/N’s side. She was stirring, blinking up at him as he knelt down, shaking herself to push the clouds away.

“Sam? What the fuck?” She sat up with his help, fingers curling around the hollow of his elbow. “Where are they? What happened?”

Y/N’s eyes were wide as she looked around the room, at Cas, who struggled to stand, and the quickly paling body by the door. “Beka! Where’s Beka?”

Sam closed his eyes and bowed his head just a touch, just low enough to tell her the bad news. “Beka’s gone,” he whispered, bracing himself for the aftermath.

She pulled away instantly. “What!” They rose to their feet together, Y/N a little worse for wear and dizzy. She shook her head again, this time in disbelief, her eyes flitting around the room in a frantic search before settling on Sam. “He took her?”

Sam pressed his lips together in a tight frown. “She left with him.”

Across the room, Cas managed to stand, gripping the wall for support. “Sam,” he called, his throat torn and dry. “We should go.”

Y/N looked to Cas and then downwards, suddenly remembering the body betwixt them. “Kelly…why. Why would he do that?”

Sam cringed when she looked up at him for an explanation, hating to give her the bad news once more. “He didn’t.” He pushed hard on the pronoun and Y/N took his meaning like a blow to the chest.

She spun around, almost falling as the walls ebbed at the corners of her vision. “Beka… no. Fuck.”

Sam allowed her a moment’s grief, standing back while she hung her head.

Cas was not so patient and stepped forward. “We need to leave. If he comes back…”

Sam waved a silencing hand towards Cas, but nodded in agreement, stepping towards Y/N slowly. “We do need to go,” he said gently after clearing his throat.

Y/N looked back over her shoulder, eyes suddenly red with the weight of everything. “What about Kelly?” she asked, voice laced with tears.

Castiel’s eyes narrowed subtly in confusion. “Kelly is dead.”

Y/N huffed. “I know! She- we can’t just… leave her here.” She swallowed hard and turned to face Sam. “We should give her a proper funeral.”

Her eyes were wide and pleading, but Sam had no time. “Y/N, we can’t.”

“Beka would want us to,” she begged, biting her lip in the end to stop from breaking down entirely. It had all happened so quickly. In one horrid second, hope had been ripped away from them, torn from their hands, and Beka with it. She couldn’t let this final piece of her friend, the whole reason Beka had run to this place, be left to rot on the dusty floor. Kelly was a person, a good person; she didn’t deserve this. 

Sam backed away, shaking his head. A bubble of anger grew deep inside his gut, swirling strong with the image of Beka’s smirk and Michael’s hand on her shoulder. He saw the blood still dripping from her hand, saw the emptiness in her once lively eyes. Heard her defiant admission.

“It’s Rebekah.”

The bubble popped. “She killed her, Y/N! Beka did that!”

Y/N grit her teeth as water cascaded down her cheeks. “No, Sam. That… that wasn’t Beka. I know it wasn’t.”

“Y/N…” His jaw twitched, eyes rolling and lip trembling. He looked away quickly and then nodded. She was right.

 

They drove to the woods and built the pyre, Castiel and Sam erecting a small wooden altar in a clearing beneath the stars. The Impala’s lamps lit their work, and their hands cracked against the bark.

It was what Beka would want.

Y/N stood guard over Kelly’s fragile body, unable to pull her eyes away from the blood-stained bed sheet they had wrapped her in. The rough cotton held a mystery now, a casualty of Michael’s war, of their mistake. Y/N had no idea who Kelly was save for the few details Beka jad given over the years. She knew Kelly had been tough, she loved music, drove like a maniac, had a temper that could turn on a dime; but it wasn’t enough to paint a true picture. Wasn’t enough to get from A to B, to explain how she’d let herself be caged, let herself be used and thrown away like this.

In reverent silence they lifted the body, careful to lay her down gently on the pile. When the flames ascended, they stood back and watched as they licked at the sheet, orange and yellow dancing against bloody white.

It seemed that it always fell to Sam to begin, but his tongue wouldn’t move. He didn’t know what to say, for once unable to give voice to the guilt and hurt inside him. He took a heavy breath and followed a curl of black smoke as it flew up to Heaven, praying that the poor woman’s soul had taken the same course.

It was Castiel who broke the silence, offering a simple goodbye.

“May the Gates be open, Kelly, and Heaven accept your spirit.”

He turned away after a beat, shoes cracking over the forest floor as he went to stand by the car.

Y/N’s tears had dried but her heart was bruised. “I’m sorry,” she said, addressing the dawn as much as the soul of the departed. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to you in time. Sorry I wasn’t strong enough to get you out. I didn’t know you, Kelly, other than your words on a screen, but I know you were loved. Beka loved you. I’m sure a lot of people did.”

As her voice faded, Sam’s picked up. He lay a hand on Y/N’s shoulder, heavy and reassuring even as his voice wavered with uncertainty. “We’re gonna get them back,” he told her, “both of them. I promise.”

“How?”

It was so innocent, so without accusation or anger, that Sam was taken aback. He looked down at his fingers curled around her jacket and sighed.

“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. “But we will.”

The flames rose high and tiny specks of gray ash churned in the wind. Sam closed his eyes to the heat pulsing against his cheeks, to the failures of his past, to the dim hope of tomorrow. He knew they were up against Goliath with not even a pebble in their arsenal, but he knew he couldn’t give up. Surrender wasn’t an option, never was.

“We’ll bring them home,” he whispered, assuring himself more than Y/N. “I have faith.”


End file.
